I vended food in a new spot last Sunday. Pulled pork sandwiches, pork spares, cole slaw, BBQ beans and mac n cheese. It rained off and on all night and the day of my sale. I didn't have a good way to keep my wood dry. I sold all 24 racks of ribs but only 12 of the 24 butts. I made way too much food for a test spot. When it was all said and done, I lost $500 in food...which could have been worse considering I had to close down early. I used one side of my pit for smoking and the other side as an oven for the beans and mac n cheese. I then used that oven side to hold hot food in aluminum pans.

Here's the worst part: I was using a low pressure propane buner in the firebox that's normally used to light logs and charcoal, to heat the big 500 gallon chamber to hot hold food. I had been awake for 33 hours and was not doing well. I was busy and moving fast. I noticed that the hot hold side dropped to 110* and I needed to figure out why. I opened up the firebox and realized that the burner was not lit. I then grabbed the hand-held propane torch and squeezed the trigger. I just got out of the hospital burn unit with 7% total burns to my right hand, arm and face. I have temporary pig skin from my fingertips to my right elbow. My face isn't that bad. I need to wait 3 weeks for my skin to heal under the pig skin and whatever doesn't grow back, will need to be grafted during general surgery. The flame had burned out, it was pretty windy that day, and that 500G tank was full of volatile propane. It blew the 3 flat doors at the front of the smoker upwards and then they slammed shut, scaring everybody with the noise...not noticing that I had just went up in a flame. I musta looked like a stunt man in a bad Burt Reynolds movie.

Anyway, be careful everybody and don't let sleep deprivation lead you to bad decision making.

I sure hope no one gets on here and says " No pics, it didn't happen". We will 100% take your word for it. Wow man, that is crazy. I hope you heal well, that is just dumb luck. Here is to a speedy recovery, and thank goodness it wasn't worse._________________Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.

Kronk, I hope you heal up soon and glad you're here to talk about it. It seems like every few days somebody is asking about putting a propane burner in their cooker. Your accident sure illustrates how dangerous that can be. Take care man!

I have done that a couple of times myself but luckily escaped with only a few singed arm hairs and a few eyebrows shorter than the rest.

One time my white van was parked next to the smoker and when the lid blew up (open) it blew black sh!t all over the side of my van....boy was THAT hard to clean up....and the noise SCARED the crap out of me.

I too hope you heal well and fast and stand back just a little further when you light the next one.. _________________Where rumors end and legend lives forever...

Man that's a scarry story. I'm glad it wasn't any worse. As noted above keep those burns clean. I sold pits for several years and finally got to the point that I strongly recommended that client's not buy the log starter. I have had minor burns etc from them but nothing like that. I just ordered a new pit and left off the log starter. Good luck and take exteme care of those burns. Tom_________________Klose Mobile
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thank goodness you lived to tell the story. Glad to hear you are back on the ring warning others as well. No doubt a scary situation. Heal quick and hope your back to your old self in no time._________________Big Ron
Owner and Founder
Big Ron's Rub: Just Rub It On!
www.bigronswebsite.com

Dood, that really sucks. Best of luck on a speedy and healthy recovery._________________~Joe
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